Lanka navy, air force sink LTTE boats

Sri Lanka's navy and air force sank two Tamil Tiger rebel boats in battle yesterday, officials said, further straining a battered 2002 ceasefire and possibly putting peace talks further out of reach.

More than 200 people have died in violence over the past month, raising fears a two decade civil war might resume. Both sides say they want talks, but until thorny logistical issues are solved, most analysts expect violence to worsen.

Naval sources said patrol boats were fired on by apparent Sea Tiger craft off the northwestern Mannar district. The navy returned fire and a suspected Tiger suicide boat exploded. Naval sources said they then called for air support.

"There were two (rebel) boats. One was destroyed by the navy, one was destroyed by the air force," the head of the government peace secretariat Palitha Kohona told Reuters. "The people who got out of the second boat are now on land, and are being engaged by ground forces."

The air attack was the first of its kind in more than a week. The government launched two days of strikes on rebel positions in the northeast last week after a suicide attack on army headquarters in Colombo.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, whose fight for a Tamil homeland has killed more than 64,000 on both sides, had threatened to retaliate if there were any new attacks on them.

The military said it had suffered no casualties in the Mannar incident, but three policemen were wounded in the northern town of Vavuniya after suspected Tigers hurled a grenade at a police vehicle.

In fresh killing, government soldiers shot dead seven civilians in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula after a grenade attack wounded three soldiers in the same area, a pro-rebel website reported Friday.

The victims were on their way to attend a birthday party Thursday when troops opened fire with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, the Tamilnet website said.

"They were attacked by the Sri Lanka army men in retaliation to a grenade attack that took place behind their intelligence camp where three personnel, including an officer, were wounded," the Tamilnet said.

The defence ministry said troops fired at two three-wheel taxis transporting the men when they tried to attack an army sentry point.

"A huge explosion inside the second three-wheeler caused death to passengers," the ministry said, suggesting they were carrying explosives.

However military sources said the soldiers fired an RPG into the taxis.

The dead were suspected members of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the ministry said.

Two policemen also died Thursday in a grenade attack in the northern Vavuniya district, police officials said.

The latest violence came after gunmen stormed the offices of the pro-LTTE Uthayan newspaper in Jaffna late Tuesday, killing a manager and another employee.

The government says it still hopes talks can take place with the rebels next week in Geneva, but the rebels pulled out of talks indefinitely last month and the two sides cannot even agree the transport of eastern rebel leaders to a pre-talks meeting.